AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Past tense.
I try to ease back into the familiarity of how we were before. “Oh, just with everyone else?” I offer.
He smiles. It’s polite, like he’s holding back, but it’s a nice smile. A really nice smile.
“Why didn’t you want Mack to know we were friends?” he asks.
I look away. “I guess I wasn’t sure if that’s what we really were anymore. I mean, you left. Without saying goodbye.”
“Is that what you’re upset about?”
“I’m not upset.” I straighten. Apparently, that’s what I do when I’m lying.
“Yes, you are.”
“No, I’m not.”
“You’re standoffish with me, even when no one else is around.”
I fold my hands in my lap and stare at them like I’ve never seen them before.
“Emmy. . .”
“Yeah, okay, I guess I am. A little.” I glance at him, but quickly look away.
He pulls one leg up and lets his arm rest on it. “Why?”
The word hangs there, and the silence forces me to think about that day. I tried so many times to erase it from my memory but failed every time.
“You just. . .left,” I say quietly. “After everything I said, you just left.”
He isn’t watching me now. I feel the second he looks away.
“Yeah, you. . .said a lot. That day.”
I glance sideways at him. “Yeah. I did.”
“I left, and you know why.”
I stare out across the pond. It’s still and quiet, and the sun is setting behind the trees. Soon it’ll be dark.
He starts to say something and stops. It’s as if he’s trying to find the right words, but I know him.
He doesn’t like talking about this stuff.
He says plainly, “That was the worst day of my life.”
I know. I was there. I saw it all happen.
“And I hate to say it,” he continues, “but you didn’t help things.”
“I got you out of there!” I say defensively, turning to him. “Away from everyone. Wasn’t that what you wanted?”
“Yeah, of course,” he says. “But in that moment. . .it wasn’t about you. Couldn’t be about you. I was trying to get my bearings, and you just. . .”
“. . .told you how I felt.”
He nods solemnly. “Yeah.”
